A scientific society has the opportunity to apply methods and models toward political and economic questions. Just before the November 2008 elections, the New York Times' David Ignatius sat down with two former national security advisers, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, for a series of interviews on foreign policy.3 In their discussion of complementary strengths that could lay the groundwork for greater transatlantic cooperation, the advisers noted how impressive it was that the European Union could knit together so many independent states with sophisticated, comprehensive rules and regulations without inadvertently strangling economic growth. It seems improbable that Europe could build the administrative structures for a successful common currency or a single labor market without an ethos that came from scientific competence. Progress in the physical sciences can spill over in a way that supports modern institutions and efficient public policy.
Spillover to social sciences reinforces the notion that scientific progress and scientific literacy are civilizing influences. As such they can fortify what Joseph Nye termed a country's soft power, its capacity to establish appealing precedents for the rest of the world/
Science shares properties with Olympic sport in that it can open avenues for non-coercive cultural hegemony. Foreign emulation in science, though, counts for more than soccer or gymnastics. The demonstration effect in physics may initially appear as man-overcoming-Nature rather than man-versus-man, but great scientific advance is more cumulative than victory in the Games. Anyone seeking to take the next step must accommodate the vernacular of the pioneer and accept his tutelage in the universal logic governing scientific concepts. Moreover, the ingenuity and skills on display as a citizen in a specific nation-state, albeit working at university, unlocks another secret of nature register around the world as excellence that could someday be harnessed by government and adapted to the state-versus-state context.
That fungibility garners international respect and piques interest in greater collaboration. In his study of American science overtures to Europe during the first decades of the Cold War, John Krige related how overlapping interests and in some instances the overlapping community of scientists and government officials infused pure science aid with foreign policy purpose. The construction of CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) for all-European particle research in Geneva. European conferences of the well-connected Ford Foundation and the development of the NATO Science Committee did not simply advance basic knowledge; they also nurtured a special dialogue, unencumbered by normal diplomatic preoccupations. This privileged communication nevertheless facilitated American hegemony and buttressed Western solidarity against intimidation, or alternate offers, from the Soviet Union.
OSEA Aff Resources
Day one things to read:
http://deepseanews.com/2012/10/we-need-an-ocean-nasa-now-pt-1/
http://explore.noaa.gov/sites/OER/Documents/national-research-council-voyage.pdf
STEM
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/oceanexploration2020/oe2020_report.pdf
Thursday Afternoon Link to Cut
http://www.usafa.edu/df/inss/Research%20Papers/2009/09%20Coletta%20Science%20and%20InfluenceINSS(FINAL).pdf
A scientific society has the opportunity to apply methods and models toward political and economic questions. Just before the November 2008 elections, the New York Times' David Ignatius sat down with two former national security advisers, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, for a series of interviews on foreign policy.3 In their discussion of complementary strengths that could lay the groundwork for greater transatlantic cooperation, the advisers noted how impressive it was that the European Union could knit together so many independent states with sophisticated, comprehensive rules and regulations without inadvertently strangling economic growth. It seems improbable that Europe could build the administrative structures for a successful common currency or a single labor market without an ethos that came from scientific competence. Progress in the physical sciences can spill over in a way that supports modern institutions and efficient public policy.
Spillover to social sciences reinforces the notion that scientific progress and scientific literacy are civilizing influences. As such they can fortify what Joseph Nye termed a country's soft power, its capacity to establish appealing precedents for the rest of the world/
Science shares properties with Olympic sport in that it can open avenues for non-coercive cultural hegemony. Foreign emulation in science, though, counts for more than soccer or gymnastics. The demonstration effect in physics may initially appear as man-overcoming-Nature rather than man-versus-man, but great scientific advance is more cumulative than victory in the Games. Anyone seeking to take the next step must accommodate the vernacular of the pioneer and accept his tutelage in the universal logic governing scientific concepts. Moreover, the ingenuity and skills on display as a citizen in a specific nation-state, albeit working at university, unlocks another secret of nature register around the world as excellence that could someday be harnessed by government and adapted to the state-versus-state context.
That fungibility garners international respect and piques interest in greater collaboration. In his study of American science overtures to Europe during the first decades of the Cold War, John Krige related how overlapping interests and in some instances the overlapping community of scientists and government officials infused pure science aid with foreign policy purpose. The construction of CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) for all-European particle research in Geneva. European conferences of the well-connected Ford Foundation and the development of the NATO Science Committee did not simply advance basic knowledge; they also nurtured a special dialogue, unencumbered by normal diplomatic preoccupations. This privileged communication nevertheless facilitated American hegemony and buttressed Western solidarity against intimidation, or alternate offers, from the Soviet Union.